Beer Bread with Whiskey Raisin Butter

I’ve been sharing St. Patrick’s Day Inspired recipes all week. I made a Slow Cooked Corned Beef with Guinness Gravy on Monday.

Yesterday I wanted to sweet things up a bit. Check out these Irish Surprise Cupcakes! I love the pop of green color and the icing is a whipped dream!

Today’s post is all about beer bread. I think beer bread can get a bad wrap. It can be known to lack flavor. Want to know the secret behind excellent beer bread?? Pick a dark beer. Dark beers typically have richer flavor ingredients, like caramel, coffee or chocolate. I find when I use an ale or a light colored beer, it just tastes like dense bread. Nothing special. If you’re like me, you want everything you make to be a hit. Ditch the light and pick a dark beer the next time you make beer bread. I don’t drink dark beers often, so I just found one with a fun name and had a delicious description.

To make this bread recipe a little more Irish, I brought out the whiskey. I soaked a tablespoon of raisins in whiskey overnight, strained the raisins in the morning and folded them into whipped butter. Trust me, there wasn’t an overly strong whiskey taste. It was just enough and paired really nice with the beer bread.

So I know beer bread isn’t the typical Irish bread – that’s soda bread. But there is something about beer that makes me think of St. Patrick’s Day! Probably from all of the green beer they serve at the bars.

This is by far the BEST beer bread I’ve ever had. It’s sweet, dense and I love when it’s served warm. The whiskey raisin butter just melts into the bread. It’s great for breakfast or as a snack. I’d definitely make this again, anytime of year. I hope you’ll give this quick beer bread a try!